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Monday, March 20, 2017

Robot Shepherd

This was a great "little" project that we did for Curt over at Analogue Hobbies and for our entry fee to enter his yearly painting contest.

The deal with this year was that it could not be a solo project like previous years. It had to be a collaboration between multiple participants.

So I was lucky enough to team up with 3 other members, Clint, Iain, and Simon, to put this scene together. Clint being the main mastermind behind what everyone would be painting, and then letting me having a bit of freedom to put them together.

So with the other 3 painting up sheep for the scene, I was left with how to put it all together. I had been passing a few ideas back and forth and wanted to do a Shepherd for them, but didn't want to go the traditional route with them however. So hence the robot was put into the mix there. Knowing that I had plenty from past years purchases.

So first up really was trying to figure out the placement of all the models and make a proper sized base for them all. For this I actually pulled 2 separate sockets ( a huge flat one, and one that had a jagged edge ). And this gave me a really nice cliff like appearance here. Adding in some more rocks, putty, and dirt would then round it all out.

Of course since everyone else painted the sheep, I couldn't just place them on the base and then begin the painting. So I had to work out how to make this work, while still not making it super obvious that the sheep were just tacked there in the end. So that's where a ton of the grass and foliage sections were added once everything was painted up and the sheep attached :) Seems grass works great to hiding join spots :D

As for the Robot, he was positioned to be looking he was perched on the edge of the mini cliff there watching over his flock. So I tried to make him look like he was resting a bit there. And instead of a crook staff for him, I gave him a lab sign. Mostly cause that was all that I had around, but also cause I think if a Robot is watching sheep some sort of experiment is going to happen in the future.

In the end it was shipped off to Curt in Canada once finished and posted up to the contest where we got a nice runner up voting of it in relation to a book/movie. We aimed for "Do Androids dream of Electric Sheep" which we were pretty stoked to have.

Now to post up a few more that I have painted recently in between packing boxes and getting ready to move.. again...

It's absolutely spectacular Kyle! My heartfelt thanks to you, Clint, Iain and Simon for this lovely bit of whimsy. It arrived without a scratch and is now safely in our glassed coffee table for guests to admire. A great conversation piece! (Love the stickers as well.)